Determined to take control of their fates, Arjen and Arien escape Derolina Castle at the age of sixteen after their cruel mother dies. They adopt new names and find a home in the city of Aramore, while the Emperor of Yuriana searches for his missing...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
They saw the lights through the trees and heard loud booms that rattled the air. They stopped their race through the woods to listen.
"What is that?" said Arien.
"Sounds like a fight," said Marcus.
"Didn't you say Lord Farnell was here, too?"
"He is. He went into that manor to find you when he told me to stay put."
Marcus had been vague about how he found them at the cemetery. He said he saw the little dog, tried to follow it, lost it for a time, and then saw the twins being attacked by a strange creature. He glossed over the events after that, only saying that he managed to ambush the creature and scare it off. He provided no more details of how he did it.
But, based on the damage Arien had seen, she could only conclude that Marcus had been hiding his true abilities all this time. She had to wonder if he was a powerful mage. Marcus would occasionally use magic at the shop, such as for the lights, but she had always assumed that he possessed little mana.
What was he doing in an old bookshop in Aramore?
"You didn't listen to him when he told you to stay put, huh?" said Arjen.
"Of course not. Why would I?" said Marcus.
Arjen snickered and Arien raised an eyebrow at him. But it was just like Marcus to brush off a noble.
The sky pulsed with lights again, and the three cautiously walked to the edge of the manor's old gardens. Arien shielded her eyes at the bright white object that blazed near the manor. Two people were in the midst of a battle.
"That's Lord Farnell's magic," she said. "We have to help him!"
"Seems like he has it handled," said Marcus.
"But I'm afraid he'll..."
The battle paused when a large animal leaped out of nowhere and grabbed Lord Farnell's opponent in its jaws. The opponent, a mage, screamed and fought furiously to free himself from the huge white wolf.
"A white wolf?" Arjen mumbled. In the light of Lord Farnell's shield, a flicker of understanding entered his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Arien said. She didn't know Lord Farnell could control magical creatures like that.
'Arien, we know of someone who has a white wolf, don't we?'
'Huh? No.'
'Remember when we asked Jamila about the imperial family? When she told us about the princes?'
The princes? Where was he going with this?
Voices drifted from the end of a long pool where a woman some others stood at a domed building. The white shield disappeared, and Lord Farnell shouted something at the people across the pool. Arien strained to hear. The woman, wearing a familiar yellow dress, began to plead with him, but her words were unintelligible to Arien.
